James Wiseman has left Memphis Basketball and hired an agent with intentions of going pro. What does this mean for the Tigers and everyone else?
James Wiseman’s stunning decision on Thursday afternoon spelled the end of his Memphis Basketball career after just three games. Basketball fans will have to wait until the start of the 2020-2021 NBA season to see Wiseman in action again, as he will now be spending his time training and preparing for the NBA draft.
In his three games with the Tigers, Wiseman had two hyper-efficient games against low-level competition and a foul-trouble filled game against the Oregon Ducks. All together, Wiseman played only 69 minutes with Memphis.
This decision affects many parties involved. For Wiseman, it means that he will be focussing strictly on basketball for the upcoming months, improving his game for the professional level. For Memphis, it means moving forward without their prized recruit, but still putting out a talented roster that is made up of the rest of its nation-best recruiting class. For the AAC, it means losing its most talented student-athlete and weakens its best hope for NCAA tournament success in March.
While the Wiseman news is surely a bummer for all parties involved, there is still a ton of talent on Memphis’ roster who will now garner the spotlight with him off-campus. All that is for sure in this matter is that James Wiseman is no longer a Memphis Tiger.